Seer of ghosts & weaver of stories

(You are very much not forgotten)

We had another day of amazing weather. Salem is as tranquil and quirky as ever, if quieter than I remember it. Then again, it's a bit too early for the Halloween hordes to descend. James and I found a second spirit house at Fool's Mansion; it'll fit my Zuni corn-maiden figure perfectly. My other one was just too small for it, although it houses my clay Persephone-head from Sicily, so that's all right.

On the way back to Worcester, we took a detour and checked out a bunch of farm markets and orchard in the vicinity of Stow. We bought apples, pears, and peaches. And I couldn't resist picking up a miniature white pumpkin, even if I can't take it with me back to England.

Don't try. I remember once, coming back to the US, they had produce-sniffing dogs, and one of them was able to tell that one of the women traveling with us had had an orange in her purse, despite said orange having been eaten a couple days before. I can't imagine why British customs would be any different.

I'm going to have to go back to Salem some day when it isn't Halloween -- I went for Halloween my freshman year of college and just got totally turned off the place. But I have a feeling it would be lovely at another time of year.

My only produce-smuggling advice is that, if you do decide to check it, put it at the top of your luggage. When I came back from Scotland, I had some flower seeds buried deep in my luggage, and had meticulously packed everything else in there. Customs did such a reckless job of re-packing, just about everything breakable got broken :(I might recommend bringing it as a carry-on..the past few times I've flown, I didn't have all my carry-on liquids and what-have-you secured, and nobody stopped me. For better or worse, they seem to have gotten a little lax yet again.Glad you two are getting to enjoy autumnal New England :) It's the best!

* For a full list of publication credits in poetry and fiction, see my profile.

ABOUT

A.J. Odasso's poetry has appeared in an eclectic variety of publications, including Sybil's Garage, Mythic Delirium, Jabberwocky, Cabinet des Fées, Midnight Echo, Not One of Us, Dreams & Nightmares, Goblin Fruit, Strange Horizons, Stone Telling, Farrago's Wainscot, Through the Gate, Liminality, inkscrawl, Battersea Review, Barking Sycamores, and New England Review of Books. Her début collection, Lost Books (Flipped Eye Publishing), was nominated for the 2010 London New Poetry Award and for the 2011 Forward Prize, and was also a finalist for the 2011 People's Book Prize. Her second collection with Flipped Eye, The Dishonesty of Dreams, was released in 2014. She holds degrees from Wellesley College (B.A. in English), University of York (M.A. in Medieval Studies), and Boston University (M.F.A. in Creative Writing). She has served in the Poetry Department at Strange Horizons since 2012.